Prince George biathletes Aliah Turner and Liam Simons were the top-finishing North Americans in Monday’s pursuit races at the FISU World University Games in Turin, Italy.
Racing on the course that will be used for the 2026 Olympics, Turner finished 29th out of 50 starters in the 10-kilometre women’s pursuit, while Simons ended up 26th out of 45 men in the 12.5 km pursuit.
Urged on by a crowd of parents and siblings who gathered at what has become known as "Canadian corner," Turner got off to a great start when she cleaned her targets in both prone shooting bouts. But she had some trouble in her two standing shooting sessions and missed two in her first session and had three misses in the second, which forced her into the penalty loops.
Turner, an 18-year-old kinesiology student at the University of Calgary, clocked 45:47.1 -9:04.5 off the gold-medal pace of Barbara Skrobiszewska of Poland, who shot 17-for-20 and completed the course in 37:40.6.
In other Canadian results, Quinn Morgan was 31st, Danika Burke was 32nd, Anna Perry was 33rd, Ella Niedre was 43rd and Isabella Caza was 46th.
Turner, a member of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club who trains in Canmore with the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre, was 26 in the sprint and 22nd in the short individual race. The sprint result determines the starting order for the pursuit.
In the men’s pursuit, Simons went 15-for-20 on the range, missing two in his first bout and leaving just one target up in each of his next three bouts.
The 20-year-old UBC-Okanagan chemistry major crossed the finish in 47:34.0. That was 9:45.1 off the winning time posted by sprint bronze medalist Bohdan Borkovskyi of the Ukraine (37:48.9, 0+2+1+1) who also won gold in the short individual race that started the biathlon competition last Tuesday.
In other Canadian men’s pursuit results, Mathieu Lacasse was 31st, Dawson Schligol was 40th and Zachary Grapplolini was 43rd.
Simons finished 28th in Saturday’s sprint. He began his first University Games competition on Tuesday (Jan. 14), finishing 29th in the short individual race.
On Thursday, Jan. 16, Simons teamed up with Perry to finish 10th in the single mixed relay.
Biathlon resumes Wednesday with the mass start events.
Allie Dickson of Burns Lake is the Canadian biathlon team head coach.
